Using Budget Cost Fields

[Pratta]

I assigned a cost resource that is a budget resource to a project summary
task, and entered a budget amount in the Res Usage or Task Usage view.
Looked ok.
However, when progressing the project with actuals the budget does not get
utilised.
Nor does the project summary task show progress after the budget resource
is assigned.
Using MS Project 2007 Std.
Am I missing something?
Would appreciate any insights.

Thanks...............Pratta

 

[Rob Schneider]

I've not used this new feature in Project 2007 very much, but I did take
a look at it. When you say "budget dos not get utilised", exactly what
do you mean. Far as I can tell, Project only shows you the budget and
it shows you the actuals. There is a nice view of what Project does in
the Step 5 part of the Help Article "Introduction to Creating a Budget".
Are you seeing something different than protrayed in the screen shot
in that Help article?

I'm also want to get clarification of what you mean "show progress".
Are you saying that the columne %complete is not there (if so, just add
it back), or that the number is blank or otherwise wrong? What is
"progress"?

--rms

www.rmschneider.com

 

[Dale Howard [MVP]]

Pratta --

No, you are not missing anything. The behaviors you see regarding a Budget
Cost resource are by design, and are exactly how this feature works. The
software does NOT deduct Actual Cost from the Budget Cost amount, nor does
the software status the Budget Cost resource as the project progresses. If
you want to deduct Actual Cost from Budget Cost, then you need to create a
custom field for this purpose. Hope this helps.

 

[Pratta]

Thx for responses. But when adding the resources to summary task, the roll-up
of progress to the summary task is lost in the Gantt. Is there an option that
stops this occurring? Try it and you'll see how horrendous it is! Must be a
bug - why would Microsoft use the project summary task for budget tracking,
but in so doing, lose the summary view; and master roll-up views of progress.
Is there a fix coming?

 

[Rob Schneider]

Try it without putting resources on the Summary task. It is well-known
not good practice to put any resources on a summary task because,
simply, a summary task is not a task, and thus makes no sense to do so.

--rms

www.rmschneider.com

 

[Pratta]

Hi Rob,
The purpose of creating a budget is to have it on the total project. The
help and video for "Create a budget for your project" state that this
functionality requires that the budget resources are applied to the project
summary task. But in doing so you lose the value of the project summary task
itself. Note: I never add resources to summary tasks, and have health check
filters to stop this occurring inadvertently. So please, if you respond,
check the new feature first.

 

[Pratta]

Thanks Dale
Agreed, I have since found and read the "Create a budget for your project"
help and video. But in-so-doing, the Project Summary task gant roll-up
features are lost; which are of immense value. It's only when you remove the
resource allocations that they are again viewable. Surely this is not
intended, and would preclude its effective use.

 

[Rob Schneider]

You said "but when adding the resources to summary tasks", so I
concluded you added resources to the summary tasks.

Good luck.

--rms

www.rmschneider.com

 

[Andrew Lavinsky]

What roll up features are you referring to specifically?


- Andrew Lavinsky
Blog: http://blogs.catapultsystems.com/epm

 

[Pratta]

Hi Andrew
The Project Summary task roll ups in Gantt view. I use master files and
roll-ups from sub projects. The Project Summary shows % Complete, and set up
to show rolled up milestones in the gantt. When you use the budget feature
and add the budget resources to the project summary tasks (as prescribed in
the extensive Help in "Create a budget for your project") the project summary
task in the gant view goes grey.
Remove the budget resources and those features return.
Is there a work-around?

Regards........Pratta

 

[JulieS]

Hello Pratta,

Pardon me for bumping in. In reading your question it appears as
though you may be expecting the budget cost resource to behave as a
baseline cost does. If you have assigned resources with costs
(Standard Rates etc) to your tasks and/or used fixed task costs, you
should save a baseline. The baseline will copy the calculated costs
for each task as well as rolling up the baseline costs from tasks to
each summary task. Once you have saved a baseline and begin
supplying progress (tracking) the baseline cost will remain stable
but you will see calculated Actual Cost (based upon tracked work)
and Remaining Cost which is Baseline cost - actual.

I think that will achieve what you appear to be looking for -- not
budget costs.

I hope this helps. Let us know how you get along.

Julie
Project MVP

Visit http://project.mvps.org/ for the FAQs and additional
information about Microsoft Project

 

[Pratta]

Hi JulieS
Thanks for that. I only added resources to the summary task as thats what
the help says to do to avail of the budget functionality. The problem is, in
doing that, the usefullness of the project summary task in the gant is lost.
It's grayed out!
I am aware of baseline functionality, and use it extensively . But I heard
about the extensive budget functionality as a feature of 2007, and
investigated.
I think I will just create a numeric fieldd as a budget item and use a
custom field to calculate Budget - Actual cost to ascertain whats left; as
Dale suggested, and not use the procedure in Help involving the summary task
at all.

Thanks Pratta

 

[JulieS]

You're welcome Pratta. I have yet to find a full use for either the
budget cost or budget work fields. Perhaps 2010 will use them more
fully -- I've not had a chance to investigate that component yet.

Thanks for the feedback.
Julie

 

[Andrew Lavinsky]

Interesting. I'll have to take your word for it though, as I tried to recreate
the issue and couldn't. I see the % Complete and the rolled up milestone
on my master summary task.

I wonder if you have a custom formatted Gantt Chart?


- Andrew Lavinsky
Blog: http://blogs.catapultsystems.com/epm